Big – a first-year gyrfalcon – and little – a downy/pin-y merlin. Sharp-eyed viewers – the merlin got blown out of his nest and his right eye got a minor infection in the process – it’s recovering well. Non-falconers – note the difference in the proportions and structure of the feet. The merlin has bird-catcher’s feet; the gyr is much more a generalist, shading towards furred quarry.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Are the intarwebs great or what? Last night I watched – live – a dissection of a giant squid from the other side of the world. The archived video stream can be found here.
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h/t ectoplasmosis
Steve posted recently about overharvest of a Tibetan medicinal fungus – when I clicked through and read the LA Times article, the scientific name of the fungus rang a bell. “Cordyceps,” says I. “Isn’t that the genus of the mind control fungus?” Off to Wikipedia to verify that, yes, indeed, Cordyceps unilateralis changes the behavior of it’s ant host.
Cordyceps unilateralis is a species of entomopathogenic fungus that infects and alters the behavior of ants in order to ensure the widespread distribution of its spores. The spores enter the body of the insect through its spiracles, where they begin to consume the non-vital soft tissues. When the fungus is ready to spore, its mycelia enter the ant’s brain and change how it perceives pheromones, causing the insect to climb to the top of a plant and use its mandibles to secure itself to the stem. The fungus then kills the ant, and the fruiting bodies of C. unilateralis grow from its head and explode, releasing the spores. This process takes 4 to 10 days.*
No similar activity was mentioned for Cordyceps sinensis (the Tibetan vegetable caterpillar), but that won’t stop me from speculating. I have 2 hypotheses:
A little more about Jott, to follow up on the brief post below… Jott is, at core, a speech-to-text application. It’s the input and output options that make it – IMHO – very cool. The primary input feeder is a phone – dial Jott, tell it where you want the message to go and start talking. When you’re done, pause – Jott will say “Got it” and queue up the message to be processed into text and sent. Output options include:
For the coolest, most mind bending, creatively playful use of Jott ever, click here. It’s a two species blog post – bravo RKO’C!
Great outing last night – off with my friend E to do battle with Homarus americanus (often referred to as bugs in these parts) and steamers (softshelled clams). Dee-lish! While waiting for E, I spotted a pirate and 2 wenches exiting the NH Liquor Store – some folks shilling for a rum brand – funny and odd. After dinner E went swimmin’ – too cold for your humble correspondent.
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Click here or on the picture below to see more.
I just put up a new project page to document some work on a brackish water Southeast Asian mangrove biotope-ish aquarium. It’ll always be available from the ‘Pages’ section in the right margin (way down). Not sure how I’ll indicate updates – maybe just more miniposts like this…
